country, a practically unknown land in Central Asia.

In connection with the work of Simpson at the base station, I must not
forget the telephones. Certain telephones and equipment sufficient for
our needs were presented to us in 1910 by the staff of the National
Telephone Co., and they were very largely used in scientific work at the
base station as well as for connecting Cape Evans to Hut Point, fifteen
miles away. Simpson made the Cape Evans-Hut Point connection in
September, 1911, by laying the bare aluminium wire along the surface of
the snow-covered sea ice, and for a long time there was no difficulty in
ringing up by means of magnetos. However, when the sun came back and its
rays became reasonably powerful, difficulty in ringing and speaking was
experienced.

We used the telephones almost daily for taking time, and Simpson used to
stand inside the hut at the sidereal clock whilst I took astronomical
observations outside in the cold. We also telephoned time to the ice cave
in which the pendulums were being swung when determining the force of
gravity. Telephones were quite efficient in temperatures of 40 degrees
and more below zero.

Midwinter Day arrived on June 22, and here one must pay an affectionate
and grateful tribute to Bowers, Wilson, Cherry-Garrard, and Clissold the
cook.

To start with, we had to discuss whether we would hold the midwinter
festival on the 22nd or 23rd of June, because in reality the sun reached
its farthest northern Declination at 2.30 a.m. on the 23rd by the
standard time which we were keeping. We decided to hold it on the evening
of the 22nd, this being the dinner time nearest the actual culmination. A